Life. Love. Dudes. And a Dudette.
I tell everyone that homeschooling was never part of my life plan, so I thought. I loved the idea of it in theory but it was one of those “oh good for them, I could never do that” type of things. Until I really had no choice. Thus ensued one of the craziest, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my life that my family will always remember…
Have I mentioned my design obsession? Oh yes, yes I have. As such I’m perpetually decorating or re-decorating or helping others decorate or re-decorate. Here are my insights into the big trends we will start… More
I’m not sure it made me stronger. Maybe one day at the end of my journey on this earth I’ll look back and be able to answer that with more certainty. What it did do was change my entire perspective on life. Especially given the fact that I was young when he died, I was 27.
Are you considering Western Governors University for your nursing degree? If so, here’s some of my insight into the inner workings of coursework at WGU. This is my insider advice on tackling each assessment area and how to navigate the road of their RN to BSN and BSN to MSN program/s which I completed myself. You can read more about my journey here. Course by course tips for the BSN are here and for the MSN are here.
Continue reading “WGU Nursing Program- An Inside Look”
Off we go to week 2 of my journey through the 30 Days to Healthy Living bootcamp!
I’m still working on healthy dinners that are low to no carb. This isn’t necessarily a requirement of the bootcamp but I’ve found that it is a good area of improvement needed in our lives. After all, this experience is about making a lifestyle change that sticks beyond bootcamp.
So far we’ve found some great recipes and have made or modified a few of our own. The main issue I’ve seen here is that the kids are not as happy with our meals as they usually are. Continue reading “Arbonne Detox Week 2”
I offer the following insight into choosing the RIGHT DOCTOR for clubfoot treatment. This is CRUCIAL. I had no idea how important this seemingly simple decision would be much like other parents out there. Please research and do your homework, take my advice below to make the right decision for your little one!
After the initial shock of the clubfoot diagnosis subsided and once we got the amnio and microarray testing back confirming that our baby was perfectly fine with just a special foot we moved to the next phase, choosing a doctor for her treatment after birth. Continue reading “Choosing a Clubfoot Doctor”
I always seem to be into design trends that no one knows are trends yet. This has proved quite challenging because I have to scour the earth to find things to suit my design ideas like digging up a needle in a haystack. And lo and behold about 1-3 years down the road these ideas are everywhere requiring no effort to acquire… yet I’m off to the next idea.
Prior to the whole “farm-y industrial” idea that is everywhere I was wracking my brain trying to describe to people what my design style was. I’d often say that it was like Restoration Hardware meets shabby chic, with a little more chic and a little less shabby. Urban farm was a fairly decent description. Well now it requires no explanation, this is the trend everywhere (and perfectly executed on my favorite Fixer Upper show by the way). The first episode I saw I looked at my husband and said OMG someone finally GETS IT. She is my spirit animal. Continue reading “Design Trends 2018 And Beyond”
Alrighty, off we go! It’s week 1 of the Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living Bootcamp. Here’s my experience and narrative for the first week which had it’s share of ups and downs.
Day 1- I was added to my bootcamp a little bit late so I missed the whole idea of prepping meals and snacks the weekend prior but I wasn’t too worried about that because we enjoy cooking. For breakfast I grabbed the probiotic and added it to about 4 oz of water, handed one to my hubby, and took a swig. He immediately chokes, slams the rest of his drink and gasps “OMG it tastes like BURNT HAIR?!!” I started laughing and told him to shut up because I still had half of mine to drink and he was exactly right, that stuff tastes like burnt hair. Disgusting. I choked the rest of mine down nearly gagging.
Well this 30 days is going to go well! Face –> palm. Continue reading “Arbonne Detox Week 1”
This post was written after I had my second child. We had two kids under 2 and wanted a form of birth control that I didn’t have to deal with, no pills to take on a regular basis. My OBGYN gave me the rundown on Mirena and how wonderful it was! 5 years of hassle free birth control. Sounded great. Popped that baby in and didn’t think anything of it. Until it became a major issue.
I’m finally breaking up with my Mirena. For 5 months I’ve been told to just hang in there, wait it out, deal with the beyond annoying side effects and I’m finally calling it QUITS! No one in their right mind should continue to put up with these kinds of things for this length of time, I don’t care what the “professionals” tell you. Continue reading “Breaking Up With My Mirena”
It’s been my goal to get our household organized top to bottom, I made a New Years resolution to do it and finally stuck to it. What a difference it makes. I’ve noticed that it has helped calm down much of the chaos in the house not only for myself but for the kids and hubby as well. When everything is orderly and predictable it lends itself to schedules, routines, meal times, and other things being orderly and predictable. For a household with 6 people, this is a MUST.
I think there are a few important steps to tackling whole house organization. I’ll outline them in more detail below: Continue reading “Whole House Organization- How To Begin”
8-4-2012
I’m not even really sure how to write this post, or if I should write it… all I know is that it replays in my mind constantly and I feel like I need to get it off of my chest.
It is roughly one year to the day that we found out my Dad has cancer. It is also about 4 months since we were told that it had come back and is now stage IV. What a year it has been… I often talk about the hellish nightmare it is, nothing’s changed there. We should have a frequent flyer card for the hospital, even my 2 year old knows how to manuever through the rat maze that is Swedish Hospital, he’ll tell you exactly where to go to see “Grampa and his big owie”
A few days ago was another trek to the hospital. I got a phone call early in the morning from my step mom, clearly panicked, that my Dad had just left the house in an ambulance. He had gone to the bathroom and just as she went to check on him she caught him as he fell to the floor and proceeded to bleed out all over the bathroom floor. Continue reading “Trauma and Cancer, A Dynamic Duo”
There are 5 million books on pregnancy and what to expect, what’s normal, etc. There are 5 million books on your baby’s development once they arrive. But what the heck happened to the advice and tips for MOM afterward? You don’t hear about this stuff in any book or in any birthing class!
I would’ve appreciated a little forewarning, so I offer the following from my experiences. Each kid came with a new surprise! No shame here in sharing.
No one warned me… Continue reading “Postpartum life, what the books don’t tell you”
It was the very end of our 16 week ultrasound when the technician said “well baby is looking great! There’s just one little thing here, her left foot is turned in, so the doctor will chat with you about that. Everything else is absolutely perfect!” it was a cheerful voice but you could tell it was awkward for her to say, how do you deliver news like this to a parent? She guided the ultrasound probe around to zoom in on her foot and showed us how compared to the other foot you could see all the foot bones in one plane which indicated that it was turned in. She didn’t use the term clubfoot until I said it. It was obvious she was politely trying to tip toe around things until the doctor came in so that he could do the talking. I asked a handful of questions which she tried to answer vaguely and kept reiterating that the doctor would have a lot more info for us. Continue reading “A Clubfoot Journey”
Momma Maven 